At Illinois State University

Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology at Illinois State University

LIFT (Little Idea For Teaching) 38

Strategy: Student Self-Assessment

As students' desire for feedback increases, supporting their ability to conduct meaningful self-assessment can boost learning and satisfy the urge for feedback.

Origin

Center for Teaching Excellence. Classroom Assessment Techniques(CATs). George Mason University. .

Curtz, T. (n.d.). Teaching self-assessment. .

Marshall, Kate. (March 11, 2012). Student self-reflection. .

Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education. Sample self-evaluation prompts. .

Weimer, M. (February 1, 2012). Student self-assessment: A sample assignment. .

Application

Many beginning college students are not in the habit of reflecting on their own work.

How can we support the development of student capacity to self-assess? ? Assign ongoing practice, beginning with small exercises. ? Provide alternative assignments and allow students to receive peer feedback and determine which assignments to submit. ? Include student self-assessments as an element of the formal evaluation process. ? Model mutuality through faculty assessment process; share your assessments with students and receive feedback.

Possible Student Assessment Assignments:

Personal Goals Statement ? Prepare a paper (750 words) that identifies personal goals for the course. ? Statements should be specific and detailed. ? Include a description of how goals will be met. ? Provide weekly benchmarks and a time schedule.

The Cover Letter ? Students take a collection of assignments and write a short letter about which two entries are best from their accumulated work and why. ? They also must explain their reasons for selecting those pieces as the best ones.

What have you Learned from this Class? ? Prepare a self-evaluation paper (750 words) that analyzes how personal goals were met. ? If the goals changed or new goals emerged, explain why.

? Assign an overall grade based on performance in the course and tie it back to the contents of the evaluation.

Personal Learning Plan/Project ? Provide a checklist of course outcomes (and some module outcomes) and have students self-assess their ability to meet outcomes on a simple "rank yourself" likert-style scale. ? Based on this assessment, identify a plan for meeting outcomes using information about student learning strengths. ? Revisit at least twice during the semester to assess and re-assess progress. ? Complete a final checklist that provides more comprehensive reflection and a plan for continued growth.

Letter to Myself ? Students write a letter to themselves in the first week of the course explaining what they hope to accomplish and why. ? Students are encouraged to discuss ways to reach their goals in the letter. ? The instructor collects the letters. ? The instructor distributes the letters at a future point in the course (half-way through). ? The students read the letters and reflect on how well they are meeting their goals and develop goals for what they can still accomplish in the course.

"Tips to Survive" ? Students write letters to future students in a memo-format to reflect on what worked, what didn't, and what they would do differently if given the opportunity.

Midterm "Uncovering My Learning Essay" Write a short essay considering the following questions:

? What ideas, theories, and learning experiences are most compelling to you thus far? ? What connections do you find among these ideas, theories, and learning experiences? ? What connections do you find among this class and other classes? Your major? Your learning experiences

outside the classroom? ? How well are you meeting the goals that you have for yourself in the course? What is going well for you?

What goals do you still need to work hard to meet? ? What is most challenging for you about this course? ? What could you do differently to meet your goals for yourself and what suggestions do you have for this

course?

Self-evaluation writing prompts ? Did I do more or less than was expected by the instructor? By me? Why or why not? ? This is a ___ credit class, or about ____ of my study time this semester. Do I give it that much time? ? What do I now understand about the subject? ? What are my strongest and weakest points as a student? What did I do to improve the weak points? What will I do next? ? What do I need to learn about this subject? ? What was most satisfying about this class? Most frustrating? How did I deal with these issues? ? Has the course irritated you? Touched you personally? Stimulated you? Made you uncomfortable about yourself, society, the future, and/or learning? Are you the same person as you were at the beginning of the semester? ? What did you expect to learn? What did you actually learn?

Reflection

How can student self-assessment promote student learning in your courses? Which of these strategies will you implement and why?

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download